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FGM

A committee of religious leaders in Iraqi Kurdistan will be meeting this week to look at the issue of female genital mutilation (FGM). Ahmed Shafee, member of the high commission for fatwas assured the media that the committee will hold a meeting to look at the phenomena of FGM in Kurdistan. The head of the media section of the committee, Mula Jaffar Kuani, complained about the report recently issued by Human Rights Watch, saying that “blaming religious leaders for the increase of FGM cases is not right; in addition those who published the report did not consult us during the editing of that report”.

While internationally recognized as a form of violence against women and girls, the tragedy is that female genital mutilation is perpetuated by mothers, aunts and other women who love and want the best for their children, who see the practice as ensuring that girls are marriageable, are conforming to the tenets of Islam, and are growing up to be respectable and respected members of Kurdish society.

Africa Rising is a powerful documentary portraying the indomitable grassroots movement to end female genital mutilation. Traveling through remote villages in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mali, Somalia and Tanzania, Africa Rising celebrates the resilience and determination of the human spirit to change destiny against all odds.

In 1994, a frightened 17 year old girl boarded a plane to flee an impending forced marriage to a much older man with three other wives. In a small room waiting for the groom, in Togo, West Africa, Fauziya Kassindja was also warned that a woman would soon arrive to excise her clitoris and other parts of her genitalia in preparation for her impending nuptials. From time immemorial, women in her community needed to be "clean" for their husbands and to gain acceptance into society. In honor of her father who had protected her until his sudden death, Fauziya refused that day to undergo the harmful practice of female genital mutilation, or FGM, and escaped.

On 26 April 2010, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a “Policy Statement – Ritual Genital Cutting of Female Minors” that in effect promotes changes in US federal and state laws to “enable pediatricians to reach out to families by offering a ritual nick” such as “pricking or incising the clitoral skin to satisfy cultural requirements.”

In 2002, a report titled Refugee Women at Risk called attention to several acute challenges facing women seeking asylum in the United States. Published by the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First), Refugee Women at Risk illustrated how restrictive provisions in a 1996 immigration law, the "Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act", undermined the United States‘ commitment to offer protection to those fleeing persecution. Refugee Women at Risk highlighted how barriers that the 1996 law created for all asylum seekers interposed particularly significant and even insurmountable obstacles to women fleeing violence and oppression, principally through policies of expedited removal, detention of asylum seekers, and the one-year filing deadline for asylum claims.